Old and recent proof that you can kill ideas

People say you can’t kill an idea.

But ideas die all the time, both from natural causes and from murder.

An example of ideaicide:

Do you remember back in 2014 or so, what was the hot political issue? Sure, groups of all kinds were talking about all the usual stuff. Health, defense, social security, racism, corruption…

But I couldn’t go a day without someone talking about income inequality.

They all compared graphs of this to graphs of that. The Occupy movement had aroused attention and everything was decided by this.

So Trump decided to run for president. Obviously, that’s a tricky subject for any billionaire, but especially for that billionaire. So instead he spoke of building ‘a great and beautiful wall.’

Boom. Suddenly, the topic of the day was immigration.

Chalk it up to luck or skill, massive manipulation, or an idea whose time had come. Either way, the old idea was dead, or at least it was bleeding to death.

Do you want a more complete example?

Well, I can’t give one. How could I? If an idea is dead, then I don’t know.

But I can point to a delightfully intriguing counter-example, which happens to be one of the latest political fixing points:

Porcelain.

If you look at the history of China, it seems like an endless stream of innovation. The relevant Wikipedia article contains hundreds of inventions: at the top, it mentions the “Big Four Inventions”: paper, compasses, gunpowder, and the printing press.

These alone are amazing feats of science, and China invented them in ancient history. What other country can boast of such a history?

Better question: how did they achieve that?

Genetic superiority? Unlikely.

A culture that favors innovation? Hardly. Chinese society, then and now, hardly accepts radical and deviant thinking.

I have a theory

And my theory explains why China invented these things but didn’t use them.

Not to bring up a sore point for them, but the Century of Humiliation involved an alliance of Western powers dividing up China. They did this, in part, thanks to their superior technology. But it was ‘superior’ because European navies had compasses for sailing and lots of cannons, using, wait for it, gunpowder.

Industrial-age Europe used the same technology invented in ancient China…so how could it be better?

My theory is simple:

China, for most of its history, has been politically stable. Sure, sure, dynasties ended bloody, got invaded a couple of times, then there was that mess with the Cultural Revolution.

But look at any corner of the world for thousands of years. Most other cultures fell apart and rebuilt themselves dozens of times.

Today, the buzzword is ‘disruption!’ Back then, it was ‘stability!’ Industries stayed the same for centuries, in contrast to today’s technological turnover, so stability has an advantage.

Because, back then, maybe new inventions popped up every few decades, out of sheer luck or inspiration.

But without a stable system of commerce, that idea would not leave the town.

And without a strong rule of law, that town would sooner or later become fodder for bandits.

So a politically sound society could hoard and share its inventions, while other societies would lose them to entropy.

But if it is too stable, you will have a hard time using those inventions.

In Europe, the printing press was a game changer. In ancient China, it probably only reinforced the existing game.

Maybe he’s right, maybe not. At best, it’s a partial explanation… although it fits the facts very well.

(Even if it has horrible implications, most of our good ideas have been lost to time.)

But let’s assume it’s true.

You can be sure I’m going to use this as a metaphor.

It is a call for you to accept chaos and routine, because too much suffocates you.

And a reminder that nothing is permanent.

But the big one?

You have so many great ideas, so many solutions to the challenges you face. But they won’t do you one iota of good on their own.

Gunpowder as a novelty today is less useful than gunpowder as a weapon a thousand years from now.

Learn to act on your ideas and instincts. Anything else is like letting foreign imperialists carve their initials into your back.